Rain accompanied by a brief shower of hailstones, some the size of marbles and others as big as marshmallows, hit Al-Ahsa on Monday. However, according to the Meteorology and Environment Protection Agency, there were no reports of damage from anywhere in the province. “It was a brief shower of hailstones, which was ushered in by a very low pressure system,” a weather forecaster at the MEPA in Dhahran said. “This is a normal phenomenon; it happens in many parts of the country when very low pressure sets in.” Residents in Al-Ahsa enjoyed the hailstones, picking them up as souvenirs. The Eastern Province has been experiencing heavy rains with scattered showers and thunderstorms for the last three to four days. The irregular showers that lasted from 15 to 30 minutes occurred mainly within the Dammam Greater Area (Dammam, Al-Khobar, Dhahran, and Qatif). Heavy rain with hailstones hit Al-Ahsa in the early morning of Saturday and Sunday. Due to the continuous rainfall, the temperature came down from 26 degrees Celsius to a cool 17 degrees Celsius in the evening. Weather forecasters at the MEPA said that the sky would clear by the weekend.
